Marcos eyes enhanced PH-Indonesia economic ties in state visit
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. will be flying to Indonesia over the weekend for an official visit—his first state visit—to solidify the Philippine diplomatic ties with the world's largest archipelagic state.
Aside from that, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said Marcos Jr., upon the invitation of President Joko Widodo, will undertake his inaugural visit there to tap the country with the largest population and market "offering great potential for further economic engagement."
Ahead of the President's consecutive visit to Indonesia and Singapore, Daza, in a pre-departure briefing on Friday, said the President chose the two Asian countries because the Philippines share with them "an active engagement" in terms of a myriad of areas.
These include security and defense, trade and investment and people-to-people exchanges, she said.
"The Philippines and Indonesia also are fellow archipelagic states, sharing an extensive porous border and are close partners in maritime cooperation, having concluded a landmark agreement on exclusive economic zone, boundary delimitation in 2014 and currently negotiating the delimitation of other continental shelf boundaries," she said.
According to Daza, the Southeast Asian region "will be the center of global attention," considering that Indonesia will the G20 Summit. Cambodia will host the ASEAN Summit, and Thailand will host the APEC Leaders’ Summit in November.
"Indonesia will also assume the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2023," she added.